Bloody Carnival
Chapter 105: Sweeping through Death
The invigilator’s place this time was special……
There was a lot of people.
Because the exam centre included examinees both domestic and foreign, the invigilators had also all gathered together.
There were a little more of them from the larger regions while only a few were from from smaller regions.
In total there were 37 people.
This time, the location was also very special.
It wasn’t an old ship floating in the sea and it also wasn’t a cabin sitting on top of a mountain. Instead, it was a resort——
With a lake in the front and a forest behind them, it had a restaurant, internet and even air conditioning.
When it was a little past seven, most of the invigilators were in the restaurant eating and chatting. It was unusually very lively.
But there were a few exceptions.
They stood on the terrace outside the restaurant a little further away from the crowd and they all held complicated expressions. It was difficult to tell whether they were happy or unhappy.
021 leaned on the railing, her stiletto heels making her legs appear long and slender.
“I must say………” She held the stem of her glass of champagne and glanced over, “Why am I still running into you guys here?”
The people standing before her were all familiar faces.
922, 154, Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong.
“If this continues, I might even suspect that the other invigilators here are all fake.” 021 said.
922 rubbed his face hard, “Perhaps it is fate……”
021: “Is your brain okay?”
922 rubbed his face until it was all scrunched up, “Miss, why are you personally attacking me……I was just wondering if this was because of boss. Because boss is here, the system wanted us to tag along by default?”
“What about me? 001 is not my boss so why am I here with you guys again?” 021 asked back.
In fact, she felt a little guilty inside.
Afterall, she was secretly helping A and A was basically bound together to 001.
922’s guess made her wonder if the system was aware of her relationship with A.
“Then I don’t know.” 922 said, “Maybe because you’ve been quite active lately?”
“Then there is another problem.” Gao Qi downed his red wine and wiped his lips, “As 1006, I have been very inactive, yet I’m also dragged here. Isn’t this too much of a coincidence?”
“Not only that—–”
Zhao Jiatong swirled her glass and pointed at the lively crowd in the restaurant through the glass door, “You can tell just by looking.”
154 and the others were leaning against the railing. Hearing her words, they turned to look back.
Only Gao Qi didn’t turn his head. He took Zhao Jiatong’s glass and poured her wine into his.
922 asked, “What’s wrong with those people? Is there a problem?
Zhao Jiatong said, “Look more carefully.”
These young invigilators stared at the group for a long time and suddenly realised the issue—-
“They’re……they’re all the first generation?” 922 was surprised, “I mean, the first group of invigilators. I haven’t interacted with many, but I have read a lot of information about them”
He nudged 154, “I didn’t recognise wrongly, did I? Hey, help me check.”
Of the earliest group of invigilators, more than twenty were in charge of overseas examinations and were rarely seen throughout the year.
But now, they were almost all gathered here.
154 looked into the restaurant and slowly shook his head, “It should be right. It’s them.”
021 looked at Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong and then back at the restaurant, “What is it this time? A reunion?”
“You young people are very slow.” Gao Qi only now turned around. He lifted his chin, “When myself and Old Zhao, ah no, Little Zhao came over, we were giving our greetings the entire way. You didn’t notice that it was strange?”
922 internally muttered: You greet everyone like that. How could we tell who you’re close and not close to?!
“But…….Their reactions are very calm. They don’t find it strange?” 922 was a little puzzled.
“We’re all experienced. We’re used to it.” Gao Qi pointed at his nose and said, “Xiao Zhao and I are also very calm.”
That’s true.
922 internally thought this.
Whatever these experienced invigilators thought, they wouldn’t show it on their faces. Perhaps even while they’re seemingly mindlessly chatting, their minds were working like crazy inside.
Suddenly, he realised something, and he received a small shock.
If boss is here, then that means that You Huo is here too.
Who is You HUo?
Invigilator A!
The former leader of this group!
He, 154 and 021 have met You Huo many times and had grown used to it.
But what about these people?
After the start of the joint examination, the invigilators would only receive a list of examinees from their region.
So those from overseas would have no idea that You Huo is in this exam.
Even if they saw it, they may not realise because code names were more commonly used among invigilators.
If that was the case……..Then this exam is pretty much a big reunion after all these years???
922 was suddenly excited.
He didn’t bother thinking about whether this coincidence was done deliberately and for what purpose.
He just wanted to join in on the excitement.
He was excited for a few seconds and then he suddenly became worried——
This was already the fourth subject. What if You Huo decided to change his approach and complete the exam properly without violating the rules?
As soon as this thought appeared in his mind, the screen hanging from the roof of the restaurant suddenly refreshed. A new examination notice appeared.
> 19:51. Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre declared dead.
922 froze on the spot.
Something crashed next to him. 021’s glass had shattered on the ground.
The entire terrace was completely silent. The atmosphere turned heavy.
“No way?! That’s impossible!” Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong didn’t believe their eyes.
021 was also completely at loss.
Before they could recover from this shock, another notice appeared.
> 19:54. Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre declared dead.
The invigilators in the restaurant were all stunned.
Someone quietly muttered, “What’s going on? The system malfunctioned?”
Some frowned and felt that the name “You Huo” seemed familiar.
Less than a minute passed.
The screen refreshed again.
> 19:55. Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre declared dead.
> 19:58. Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre declared dead.
> 19:59. Examinee You Huo of the 197th exam centre declared dead.
In just ten minutes…….
The invigilators inside and outside the restaurant stood there motionlessly watching the screen refresh. In just ten minutes, an examinee had died five times in a row.
Outside on the terrace, Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong closed their mouths.
021’s face was wooden.
922’s lips twitched a few times. He felt that this seemed familiar.
Sure enough, he was worried for nothing.
As long as boss and You Huo are there, how could the exam proceed calmly?
Impossible.
***
You Huo was awakened by the deafening sounds from the alarm.
Without opening his eyes, he reached behind him, but felt nothing. Only then did he sit up with a frown.
“Where is he?”
He squeezed the bridge of his nose and muttered this in a low voice.
The other half of the duvet still had residual heat and the feeling around his waist had yet dissipated but Qin Jiu was nowhere in sight.
An opened notebook sat on the pillow. It was probably something Qin Jiu left there.
You Huo picked it up and glanced at it.
Seeing the dates, it should be a rather old diary.
The writing in the diary were very large, and the letters were clumsy and not of the same size. In one glance it was obvious that it was written by a child.
You Huo didn’t think much of it and just closed the notebook and stood up.
The two mounds on the bunkbed are also gone. At some unknown point in time, Shirley and Sali had gotten out of bed.
The clock on the wall indicated that it was 8pm.
It was study time.
………So, where’s Qin Jiu?
Perhaps he had gone downstairs first?
You Huo got up and went downstairs.
The pair of siblings Shirley and Sali were sitting on the sofa. On the coffee table before them was the white sheet of paper.
You Huo could see from afar that there were now words on the paper.
“This is a question left by our parents. Can you help us answer it?”
The pair of siblings asked in unison.
Their crisp voice echoed through the quiet house making it seem strangely empty.
The words on the paper were written with a red marker. It was particularly eye catching.
There was a total of two questions.
The first was a picture.
A standard equilateral triangle was drawn on the paper and there was a line drawn from one corner of the triangle to the opposite end. It looked like cut cake slices.
The question asked: Slash it once and you get three triangles. If you slash it six times, how many triangles can you get?
You Huo: “………”
Although the words used were strange, it was really a standard…….. elementary school level problem.
There was even a small note next to it indicating that this question was worth 6 points.
But this question was just an opening question.
Below that was a second question.
The question wrote: The cute and pretty Shirley likes to look in the mirror and would look at it many times a day. There is a total of 6 moveable mirrors in the house. At most how many Shirley’s can there be?
This question was worth 12 points.
In addition to those, there was also a small note at the bottom ——
This question has troubled Sali and Shirley for a very long time and it has also caused headaches for the guests. If you can’t answer or answer incorrectly, Sali and Shirley will punish themselves out of anger and won’t eat anything for a day.
That is why they are often hungry. Kind-hearted guests, please help them.
You Huo scanned through the questions on the paper and then glanced at Sali and Shirley’s belly.
Perhaps it was because they’re sitting?
It looked rounder that it was before.
What do you mean they’re hungry???
Sali even secretly let out a burp.
That small burp instantly made You Huo’s heart tremble.
He strode quickly to the bathroom and opened the door. No one.
There was also no one in the study.
Same for the basement.
Hurried footsteps suddenly came from upstairs.
You Huo returned to the first floor three steps at a time only to see that it was Chu Yue who had come downstairs.
Just as she was about to say something, she noticed You Huo’s expression and stopped: “What’s with that expression? Did someone do something to you?”
“Qin Jiu’s gone.” You Huo said.
Chu Yue exclaimed in a low voice: “I wanted to tell that too! Xiao Shu and the other two are also gone!”
As they spoke, the door to the guest room on the first floor opened. Yu Wen rushed out with his bed hair: “OLD YU—–Brother?”
“Your dad is also gone?” Chu Yue asked.
The blood in Yu Wen’s face faded, “Old Yu……..My dad’s not outside? Have you looked around?”
“I have.”
You Huo’s expression was icy cold.
He suddenly moved his gaze over to the sofa. He stared at the stomachs of those two brats.
Yu Wen similarly looked over. His expression worsened.
He also noticed that the bellies of those two brats had grown bigger. The various thoughts that appeared in his mind made his hands and feet grow cold.
“I……I seemed to have heard someone say something about examinee You Huo and a declaration of death.” Yu Wen murmured: “I though it was just a dream.”
Chu Yue said: “Before I fell asleep, I heard the system report that an examinee called Christina made Shirley cry and was declared dead.”
They are now considered as one person, and this exam centre was originally You Huo’s.
It was likely that if anything happened to them, it would be under You Huo’s name.
Now there’s a problem.
What were those five doing making Shirley cry?
And what kind of death was this declaration of death?
The second question was a very horrifying one.
The atmosphere in the house turned stagnant.
Chu Yue looked around and massaged her temples to calm herself: “No, wait a minute….Let’s not panic. Think about it, if this was a normal exam there would only be one examinee here. If they died, they can only die once. Aren’t we considered a whole? From the system’s perspective, it’s impossible for only 1/8th of a person to die.”
Her words were quite confusing.
But You Huo understood.
That’s right. It wouldn’t make sense to the system and its rigid logic.
For this to make sense, there was only one possibility: That “death” should be reversible to some extent.
Or to be more precise…..
They’re a little special, so reversing death became a possibility.
But now there is another problem—–
They would have to know how the death worked before they could know how to reverse it.
Thinking this, You Huo didn’t hesitate to grab Shirley.
Chu Yue was surprised: “What are you doing.”
You Huo: “Making her cry.”
Chu Yue: “………..”
